100 years ago
July 13, 1923
The farmers of Dublin trade territory are planning a series of field tours beginning sometime in the early part of August. The object of these tours is to make some of our best local practices more general. Particular attention will be paid to successful examples of terracing and field tests of commercial fertilizers, although news of any unusual practice which is proving successful, will be welcomed by those who are interested. These tours are for the benefit of anyone wishing to take advantage of them, and a large interest is expected.
One territorial farm agent has been asked to cooperate in arranging these tours and asks to be advised of any noteworthy example of successful farming practice, which is not general enough to be commonplace. More detailed information can be secured from Bob Jones, T.E. Hughes or L.C. Cline.
75 years ago
July 16, 1948
Little Jeralyn Kaye Ables, age 2, died in Fort Worth at the City-County Hospital Wednesday night where she had been taken the day before for polio treatment. Her little brother, Donnie Ray Ables, age 6, is in the same hospital with polio now. They are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ables, who live on Blackjack Street in the east part of town.
This makes four definite cases of polio from right in town. Lane Gee and baby are still in the hospital in Fort Worth. Both are reported as some better at this time. Other cases from this area are Tony Hood, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hood of the Roch community and Bennie Dean Ross, 6, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Ross of near De Leon.
The city council met Tuesday night and passed a resolution asking that the stores in town close all day Thursday for the purpose of the entire town. Circulars were distributed of cleaning up and spraying the tricuted over town Wednesday and mailed to the boxholders in the country announcing that the town would be closed. A loudspeakertruckannounced during Wednesday that there would be a mass meeting at Shamrock Park Wednesday night for the purposed of completing plans for the campaign.
Wednesday night hundreds of people assembled at the park. Talks were made by Mayor D.R. Franks and City Health Officer, Joe J. Pate. The doctor’s instructions were for all to clean up and spray with a DDT solution for the elimination of flies.
The city officials, the doctors and the citizens of the town are doing everything that they know to do to stop the spread of this dreaded disease. Everyone realizes what a tremendous job it is to eliminate breeding places for flies, but a mammoth effort is being made at this time to accomplish this task. Reports from people from every section of town are of many places that need cleaning up and spraying: It is known that even with all the work Thursday that there will still be much to be done.
25 years ago
July 16, 1998
It was a circuitous route which brought a set of very special golf clubs to the Dublin Historical Museum. And a particularly appropriate one.
The woods belonged to famed golfer Ben Hogan, a Dublin native who died at his Fort Worth home in July 1997 at the age of 84.
The clubs were purchased by Dublin Rotary Club and donated to the museum because, according to Rotarian Joe Thompson, “this is where they belong.”
Thompson, along with local golf aficionados and historians, hope the clubs will start a collection which will pay tribute to the man who has been described by biographers as “the hero no one knew.”
Hogan is undeniably one of the greatest golfers in history, winning 63 tournaments including nine major championships, in spite of a childhood scarred by poverty and the suicidal death of his father.
Hogan’s greatest comeback came after his car was destroyed in a head-on crash with a bus on a foggy Texas highway in 1949. His left leg was crushed and his collarbone, pelvis and a rib were broken. Sixteen months later, he won the U.S. Open championship, providing fodder for the 1951 movie, “Follow the Sun,” starring Glenn Ford.
The Dublin Rotary Club bought the Hogan clubs from Kenneth Ewing of Stephenville who says he received them as a gift from Allen Walker, a friend of Hogan who courted Ewing’s grandmother.
(These excerpts from the Dublin Progress and the Dublin Citizen are meant to reflect the history and writing style from the time periods listed.)